Healthier School Lunches Improve Student Weight

School meal programs have been the target of plenty of
ridicule. (Mystery meat, anyone?) Kids don’t want the stuff served up in
school cafeterias, especially when they have access to tasty (if not
wholesome) treats in vending machines and at fast food restaurants,
right?

Not so fast, say researchers at the University of Illinois. Their findings, published in JAMA Pediatrics,
show that when school lunches are done right, students won’t jump at
the chance to compensate with junk food. The ultimate payoff, though, is
more fit students and a lower prevalence of childhood obesity.

Using
data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, researchers analyzed
information about school lunch program participation for nearly 5,000
eighth grade students in 40 states. They found that in states that
exceeded U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) standards for the health
of school meals, obesity rates among students who received free or
reduced-price lunches were very similar to obesity rates among those who
did not.

"Our study examined whether states with stronger
school meal standards had a smaller difference in obesity prevalence
between students who obtained school lunch and those who did not," said
lead researcher Daniel R. Taber. "In general, students who obtain lunch
at school are more likely to be obese, at least in part because they
often come from low-income households that are at a higher risk for
obesity, so we wanted to see if that disparity is reduced in states with
healthier school meal standards."

Sneaking Snacks?

Research
also showed that kids participating in these improved lunch programs
did not use more nutritious school meals as an excuse to eat less
healthy food outside the cafeteria.

“People
who criticize school nutrition reforms often say that students can
easily compensate for changes ('If you try to make school meals more
healthy, students will just go to McDonald's instead'),” said Taber. “We
wanted to test that critique—do students compensate when school meals
are healthier?—and the simple answer was no. There was no evidence that
students were buying more fast food or more sweetened beverages from
other sources.”

He
added, “The students who lived in states with stronger school meal
standards consumed approximately the same amount of fast food and
sweetened beverages compared to students in other states. The bottom
line is that positive changes to school meals were not negated by
students' diet away from school.”

USDA Meal Guidelines

The USDA creates strict guidelines
for school meal programs, which were updated in March of 2012, and the
schools that go above and beyond what is required generally have the
most success.

“The unique thing about our study is that
we were analyzing states that were ahead of the curve—in 2006-07, they
had already passed their own standards that exceeded USDA standards at
the time, and their laws included requirements similar to updated USDA
standards,” Taber said.

The outlook is good for the
future of school lunch programs, even if progress is incremental.
“Schools nationwide are implementing healthier meals already as part of
the USDA's updated standards,” Taber said. “It's been interesting to
watch the reaction all year as new standards were implemented—there has
definitely been a lot of praise and a lot of criticism.

"It's
too early to know if the ongoing changes are having a positive impact on
students' health, but by looking at these states that were ahead of the
curve, it gives us an early glimpse of whether healthier school meals
have the potential to reduce obesity,” he added.

Better Food for Healthier Bodies

Not
all school meal programs are created equal, and many have room to
improve in meeting USDA and kid-approved standards. But this study
offers evidence of how successful they can be.

The National School Lunch Program
provides free or reduced-price lunches to millions of children in need
across the country. “[M]any students rely on school meal programs
because they have limited access to healthy foods at home and in their
community,” Taber explained.

Sometimes, school meals are the main source
of a child’s nutritional intake. Meal programs can be a great equalizer
for students from a variety of socioeconomic backgrounds. The better
these programs become, the more students will be able to take advantage
of the health and social benefits that a good meal can provide.

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